


Eye Witness

by ladygray99



Series: Vignettes [24]
Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Case Fic, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-14
Updated: 2010-02-14
Packaged: 2017-10-07 06:12:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladygray99/pseuds/ladygray99
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Eppes have to watch an eye witness for the night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Part of Vignettes 'verse after Don's Surprise. This is a little different. I guess you can call this a case episode but with heavy daddy!Colby overtones. Feedback Please

Colby ran his hand through his hair as he looked at the two bodies.

 “Any word on the daughter?” he asked.

 Don shook his head. “She didn’t make it to school, might be at a friend’s or something, we’re calling around.”

 “Damn it. This has to be Richardson and his pair of thugs.”

 “Of course it is,” Don snapped, “and I will authorize two weeks’ paid vacation to the first person who can find me a witness willing to testify or one shred of forensic evidence I can take to court!”

 Colby rubbed his temples. “I’m going to do anther sweep of the house.” He turned and whacked the wall with the flat of his hand in pure frustration. There was a noise, the smallest of squeaks, that didn’t quite sound like it came from the plasterboard. Colby crouched down and peered into an air vent. A pair of blue eyes peered back then slid further into the vent.

 “Don,” Colby said in a loud whisper and waved Don over. Colby shone his flashlight between the slats of the grating. The light reflected off perfect golden blond hair and bright blue eyes. The eyes were terrified.

 “Hello,” Colby said. “My name is Colby. I work with the police. Are you Cindy?”

 There was another whimper and the little girl tried to back up even more.

 “Hey, it’s OK. It’s OK, I just want to talk. If I take this grating off can we just talk?” There was no response, which Colby took as a positive. The grate wiggled off easily, but before Colby could get a word out, the girl tried to curl into a ball. Colby had a sudden horrific image of her getting stuck.

 “It’s OK. I’m not going to hurt you, no one’s going to hurt you.” Colby looked over at Don, who was already on the phone to child services. “Your name is Cindy, right?” There was a pause and a quick nod. “That’s a really pretty name. I have a little girl about your age, her name is Esther.” Colby pulled out his wallet and took out Esther’s most recent school photo. He slid it down the air conduit. “That’s her.” A small hand tentatively reached out and took the picture. “She goes to Morningside. Which school do you go to?”

 There was silence before a small voice answered. “Redhill.”

 “Redhill, that’s a very good school.” It had in fact been one of the main schools they had tried to enroll Esther in. It was eventually vetoed for the very long commute.

 “Are you in the second grade?” Colby asked. There was another nod. Colby looked behind him. Don had managed to get the bodies quickly covered. Colby looked at his watch, it was after noon. The coroner had put preliminary time of death at about 8. The grate was perfectly lined up to see the bodies. The child had probably been staring at her dead parents for hours.

 Colby knew he was thinking more like a parent than an FBI agent but he wanted that kid out of there and now. It was all he could do not to reach down and grab her and just run from the house with her. Colby also knew that forcibly removing her could do more damage than anything else. There was a good chance she saw what happened and there was a good chance she could finger Richardson’s two leg breakers and with any luck, they would roll over on Richardson.

 “It’s afternoon. I bet you’re hungry?” There was another small nod. “I bet you like peanut butter and jelly, don’t you?” There was a noise in the affirmative. “Crunchy peanut butter?” There was a nod. “Crusts?” A shake of the head. “Me neither.”

 Colby checked the progress of forensics. He wasn’t going to let anyone try to coax the kid out until the bodies were gone.

 He reached into his coat pocket. “Well, I don’t have any peanut butter and jelly on me right now but I’ve got Reeses.” Colby waved the orange packet. “They’re a little squishy.” There was a hint of a giggle. Colby opened the packet and slid one half melted peanut butter cup to the girl, then ate the other. The candy was quickly devoured.

 “You know, I bet my little girl would like to meet you. She’d be very jealous of your hair. All those curls of hers get all tangled up, especially in the mornings. She really wants straight hair like yours.”

 Colby looked over his shoulder. One body bag was already being lifted onto a gurney and the other was being zipped up.

 “Cindy, do you think you’ll be able to come out?” Colby asked. “We can find you some proper lunch.”

 There was a mumble from the girl. Colby missed most of it but it was along the line of ‘not going places with strangers.’

 “I know, Cindy, but I’m with the FBI. We work with the police and we need to make sure you’re all right.” Colby took out his badge and slid it down the air vent. “See, I’m one of the good guys.” Colby did a quick check on Don, who was talking softly to a woman Colby didn’t recognize but had that sensible, rundown look that meant she was child services. Colby reached out a hand. “Can you come out?” Very slowly the girl reached out her hand. Colby took it gently and with a couple of wiggles and a tug the girl was out of the wall and on her feet.

 Colby kept her turned away from the main scene. “There, that’s better, isn’t it?”

 Cindy’s face suddenly crumbled and she began to cry. Without a second thought Colby gave into every parental instinct he had wrapping his arms around her and carrying her outside to where an ambulance was waiting.

 ~

 Don watched Colby pace outside the interview room. “What are we going to do with her, Don?” Colby asked.

 “‘What can we do with her?’ I think is the better question.” Don turned to the woman from Child Services.

 “Well, considering the circumstances, she’s in remarkably good condition, psychologically. Most children go into shock, blank things out. She seems to remember every detail. I don’t know how that’s going to work out for her in the long run but as far as your case goes, I’m sure she’ll have no problem recognizing your suspects but...”

 “There’s always a but.”

 “She’s running on I’m not sure what. Fear, bravery, intelligence, shock, she should actually be reacting much stronger. I’m afraid she’s going to crash, and probably soon. When that does happen her brain may begin to edit things, filter out the worst.”

 “How soon?” Don asked.

 “No way of knowing. I talked with her grandparents. They’ll be here by tomorrow night and they have every intention of taking her back to Seattle right away and there will be very little you can do to stop them.”

 “So, we dig up these guys tonight, get her to finger them in the morning and hope they roll over on Richardson by noon.”

 “Assuming she’s even still coherent by then.”

 Don rubbed at his face. He did not need months of investigation hinging on a traumatized seven year old.

 “Let me take her home, Don. She trusts me,” Colby said. “I already talked with Charlie. It’s got to be better than a group home, she’s the same age as Esther, it’s not like we’re not equipped for a little girl.”

 The child services lady frowned. “It won’t be a sleepover, Agent Granger. She’s likely to severely lose her temper, have extreme nightmares...”

 Don and Colby both chuckled. “You’ve never met my kid. Trust me, we’re equipped for temper and nightmares.”

 “Okay. If you think you can handle it.”

 “I’ll put an extra watch on the house, just in case.” Don said.

 “Okay. I’ll go back to the scene and pack up some stuff for her, then come back and get her.”

 ~

 Colby looked around the bedroom. It was pink and purple full of stuffed toys and dolls. Colby realized that this was what a little girl’s room was supposed to look like. Esther’s looked like a used book store had mated with a dress shop and then exploded. She was as bad as Charlie and had learned the word hypocritical very quickly.

 Colby found a backpack packed up ready for school. He pulled out the lunch. No sense in letting it go off. Under the sandwich he found a note. _‘Have fun today. Love, Mom.’_ Colby slipped the note into one of the outer pockets of the pack for Cindy to find later. He looked through the drawers of the pale pink dresser. Favorite jammies and most worn school clothes would be on top, soft from dozens of washings. Colby then looked around at the stacks of dolls and stuffed toys. He pulled back covers of the bed. Bingo. Second favourite toys were kept on shelves. The most loved got to sleep in the bed. Under the covers was a soft, battered, Raggedy Anne type doll. Colby packed it carefully into the top of the pack.

 ~

 Colby opened the door to the house, his hand on Cindy’s shoulder. She looked around. Colby realized the warm antique wood was probably a major contrast in her mind to the cool modernism of her parents’ house. Colby could smell dinner wafting from the kitchen. It smelled like Alan’s lasagna. Colby checked the time. Charlie would be picking Esther up from her tutoring and should be home in five minutes or so.

 Alan came out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on a dishtowel. “Well, hello.” Alan smiled, a warm grandfatherly smile. “Who is this, Colby?”

 “Alan, this is Cindy. She’s going to be spending the night with us, if that’s okay?”

 “Of course.” Alan crouched down and offered his hand to Cindy. “Hello, Cindy, I’m Alan. It’s nice to meet you.”

 Cindy tentatively held out her hand as well. “Hi.”

 “Cindy, could you sit in the living room for a minute while I find out what’s for dinner?” Colby asked. Cindy nodded and quietly sat on the couch while he and Alan went into the dining room.

 “Who is she?” Alan asked quickly.

 “Right now, a federal witness. She saw a hit carried out on her parents this morning.” Alan squeezed his eyes shut. “We know who did it. We just need to grab them and she needs to finger them but she’s barely holding it together and it was either here or some random foster home for the night.”

 “Of course. Does she have any family?”

 “Grandparents. They’re going to be in by tomorrow night but they want to take her out of state quick so we need to get her to finger these guys by tomorrow.”

 Alan gave a serious nod. “Okay. Extra protection on the house?”

 “Yeah. Don’s got units assigned.”

 Alan gave another nod. Colby knew Alan was never going to be thrilled about his and Don’s and Charlie’s work, but at the same time he’d picked up more than a little procedure just by proxy and he was sure that Alan knew a heck of a lot more about every case they worked than he was ever going to let on.

 “Okay. Do you want to put her in the solarium?”

 Colby signed. “I hate to say this, but I don’t think she should be alone. I think the roll-out bed in Esther’s room is a better idea.”

 “You better talk to Esther.”

 “Yeah. I will. What’s for dinner?”

 “Lasagna.”

 Colby went back out to the living room. Cindy was looking at the picture of Don in his Rangers uniform in the little cabinet. “Is that Agent Eppes?” she asked, pointing to the picture.

 “Yes, it is. He used to play baseball.”

 “Why’d he stop?”

 “He decided he would be better at catching bad guys. Do you like lasagna?” Cindy shrugged. “Have you ever had it before?” Cindy shook her head. “Well then you’re in for a treat.”

 Colby heard a car pull up in the driveway. “I need to step outside for just a second. I’ll be right back.” Cindy nodded.

 Colby quickly stepped outside and stopped Charlie and Esther.

 “Hey, hon,” Charlie greeted with a weary smile.

 “Hey.” Colby sat down on the front steps. “Esther, sweetie. Can we talk?”

 “I didn’t do it and you don’t have conclusive evidence,” Esther said quickly.

 Colby put his face in his hands. “Okay. Resisting interrogation 101, never answer a question before it’s actually asked, and whatever it is you did that I don’t know about I’m sure we’ll get a letter from your teacher. This is about something else.”

 “Oh.”

 “We’re having a guest tonight. Her name’s Cindy. She’s seven. Her parents were killed today.”

 “She’s a witness?” Esther asked seriously.

 Colby cringed a little inside. One of the problems of raising a genius was that they found out a little too much abut the job too early.

 “Yeah. We need her to pick some guys out of a line-up tomorrow.”

 “Okay.”

 “Sweetie. She’s only sort of holding together. She’s probably going to lose her temper, she’s probably going to have very bad dreams. I need you, please, to be nice to her.”

 Esther opened her mouth and Colby gave her a hard look. Esther closed it again.

 Where Charlie had dealt with teasing by hiding behind Don and clamming up, Esther, with her impressive multilingual vocabulary, had developed a whip sharp and lightening fast tongue that left her fellow students, and in one case a substitute teacher, in tears.

 “I’ll be nice,” Esther said softly.

 “Thank you. She’s really hurting and trying to be brave and I really need your help holding her together until tomorrow. Can you do that for me?”

 “Okay.”

 Colby gave her a hug before the three of them headed back inside.

 Cindy was still looking at the family photos around the living room. “Cindy?” Cindy looked up. “This is Charlie. He’s Agent Eppes’ brother and helps out at the FBI too, and this is Esther.”

 “Hello, Cindy,” Charlie said pleasantly.

 Esther stepped forward. “Hi,” she said, holding out her hand.

 Colby looked at the girls. They were studies in contrast. Esther was a couple of inches taller than Cindy. Colby was sure she’d end up taller than Charlie by the end. She had her father’s riot of dark curls and dark eyes complemented by a residual tan from a summer spent camping in the mountains with Uncle Don and Uncle Ian and Grandpa Alan. She also had a slight broadness already beginning across her shoulders.

 Cindy, on the other hand, was blonde with skin so pale the blue of her veins was easily seen. She was petite in every way, her hands and wrists seeming like bird bones as she shook Esther’s hand. The haunted look in her eyes only added to her frail, porcelain appearance.

 “Sweetie, I think dinner’s almost ready. Can you show Cindy your room then wash your hands?”

 “Okay.” Esther took Cindy’s hand. “Come on. It’s upstairs.”

 ~

 Esther lead Cindy upstairs. She didn’t have sleepovers very often. Her few sort-of friends were older than her, or boys. She wondered if Cindy would be her friend if they’d met at school or something. Esther decided probably not. She looked like the girls who got picked up by the nannies for ballet lessons and whispered to each other when Esther walked by. Esther opened the door to her room.

 “This is my room,” Esther said. Just a statement of fact. “You can put your backpack there.” Esther pointed to her desk.

 Cindy looked around. “You have a lot of books.”

 “I like to read.”

 “My daddy reads to me at night.” Cindy said softly.

 ‘_Please don’t cry._’ Esther thought. She didn’t know how to deal with people crying. She could make them cry but that was different. She took the backpack out of Cindy’s hands and put it on her desk for the time being.

 “We should wash our hands for dinner,” Esther said, trying to change the subject. “You’ll like Grandpa Alan’s lasagna. You can’t even taste all the vegetables.”

 ~

 Colby knew he’d had more uncomfortable dinners but this was just hard. Alan was the savior of the night, carefully guiding the conversation away from dangerous territory. Esther was also unusually quiet and instead seemed focused on trying to get Cindy to eat, slipping her choice bits of lasagna and garlic bread and taking on extra vegetables for herself. Colby couldn’t help but be a little amused. If there was one constant learned Eppes family trait, it was that good food went a long way to fixing anything.

 Towards the end of dinner, Colby noticed Cindy looking at the piano. Alan must have noticed as well.

 “Do you play the piano?” He asked Cindy.

 Cindy shrugged. “I’m supposed to practice every day.”

 “Well, if you’d like to practice after dinner that would be okay.”

 Cindy just nodded and picked at some garlic bread with her fingers.

 After the table was cleared Esther set up her homework and Charlie set up to grade papers with much grumbling about budget cuts forcing him to lose more than one TA. Apparently a tenured professor should not be marking pop quizzes himself in a good and true universe.

 Cindy sat down at the piano bench and began to do scales up and down. Colby winced a few times. The piano really needed tuning if he could tell when it was off, but Cindy didn’t seem to care. The scales continued methodically, going faster and faster until they stopped.

 Colby looked over from the other room. Cindy’s shoulders were quietly shaking. Before Colby could make a move, Esther gave a quite melodramatic sigh, closed her book and moved to the piano bench next to Cindy. She put an arm around Cindy’s shoulders and just sat there until Cindy stopped crying.

 ~

 Colby did a pre-bed check. Not that there was really much of a bed time routine, but they were making a show of it for company. A roll-out bed had been set up next to Esther’s. Colby had let Esther take care of showers and teeth and jammies and now each girl was being tucked into a bed. Colby looked around.

 “Where’s Marat?” Esther pulled the faded yellow long-limbed rabbit from under the blankets. “Just checking.” The rabbit may have been named after a blood thirsty, revolutionary Frenchman but Esther did not get to sleep without it.

 Colby turned to Cindy who was clutching her doll looking lost and scared at the prospect of sleep. “Is there anything you need right now, Cindy?” Colby asked

 “Daddy reads to me at bed time,” Cindy said softly.

 Colby tried to remember if they had children’s books anymore. Esther had read past them by age four. “What does he read?”

 “He’s reading _Alice in Wonderland_.”

 “We might have that somewhere.” Colby looked around at the stacks of books. He’d been informed that there was a system, but it was about as impenetrable as Charlie’s file system. Esther hopped out of bed, reached into a stack of books by her window and came back with a small paperback copy of _Alice in Wonderland_. She handed it to Colby and climbed back into bed.

 “Okay. What part where you up to?”

 “Tea party.”

 Colby thumbed through the book until he found the Mad Hatter’s tea party and began to read.

 ~

 Colby flopped down on the couch next to Alan.

 “Are the girls asleep?”

 “Well, the lights are out and they’re laying down. As for sleep...”

 “Right.” Alan heaved a sigh. “Poor kid.”

 Colby shrugged. “I’ve got a feeling she’s tougher than she looks.”

 “She shouldn’t have to be tough.”

 “Yeah, and in a perfect world there’s no need for FBI agents and I’m a golf pro and Don’s managing the Dodgers.”

 Alan chuckled a little. “Here’s to a perfect world. You should get some sleep, too.”

 “Don’s coming around at midnight. I’ll crash then.”

 “Esther was well behaved tonight.”

 “I know. It was a little creepy.”

 “Margaret and I used to get calls to come in to the principal’s office when the boys were in school. Invariably Charlie would be sitting there with red eyes, Don would be sulking and there’d be some other boy with a bloody nose giving Charlie dirty looks. I guess Esther just doesn’t have a big brother to go running to.”

 “I dread the day some guy dumps her and she calls Ian.”

 Alan cringed at the thought himself. “That could get unpleasant.”

 “You know, Charlie and I actually talked about having another somehow.”

 “Really?” Alan had missed that conversation. “What did you decide?”

 “That an infant would probably kill us at this point. A sibling would probably be good for Esther, but...” Colby shook his head.

 “And a seven year gap is a bit large.”

 “Yeah. Well, she can baby sit once Don’s shows up. It’ll be good for her.”

 “Ah, but will it be good for him?”

 Colby shrugged. “It’ll build character.”


	2. Chapter 2

Colby made sure to make a bit of noise as he came up behind Don, who was half asleep on the couch, but only half asleep. Don looked at him.

 “Anything?” Colby asked.

 “Nah. I don’t think they realized the kid was there.”

 “If they knew Cindy was there she wouldn’t be alive,” Colby pointed out.

 “True.” Don let out a jaw-cracking yawn. “I just want to wrap this up before I’m done. One last good solid bust before I head upstairs.”

 “We’ll get them. I got the feeling Cindy’s got a mind like a steel trap, she’ll give us these guys.”

 “God, I hope so.”

 “I’m going to check on the girls.”

 Don nodded and got up to do a patrol of the outside of the house himself.

 Colby went upstairs and, as quietly as possible, opened the door to Esther’s room. He wasn’t sure if he should find the sight in front of him kinda cute or disturbing. He settled on disturbing. Cindy was asleep facing the door and even in the dim light, he could see the tracks of tears on her face. Esther wasn’t in her bed. She was spooned behind Cindy, holding her tight. Colby wondered how many times Esther had peeked into his and Charlie’s room and seen him holding her father just like that after one of his own nightmares. Colby couldn’t help but feel guilty at putting his seven-year-old in the position of being emotional support for a murder witness.

 Esther, always the light sleeper, fluttered her eyes open. Colby made a little gesture with his head, Esther carefully let Cindy go and climbed off the bed. Out in the hall Colby crouched down so he could talk with Esther quietly.

 “Hey, sweetie. Did you get any sleep?”

 “A little.”

 “I’m sorry.”

 Esther just gave a dismissive shrug. “She had bad dreams.”

 “I figured as much. Did she talk to you?’

 “She said she wishes she was dead so she could be with her mommy and daddy.”

 Colby closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “That’s called survivor’s guilt. There’s going to be a psychiatrist she can talk to to help her with that.”

 Esther nodded. “What happens to me if something happens to you and Daddy?” she asked suddenly.

 “Nothing’s going to...” Esther hit Colby with her ‘I’m not an idiot’ look. Colby sighed. One of the other problems with raising a genius was that the little lies of childhood really didn’t work. “The chances of something happening to me and your daddy at the same time are very, very small. If something does happen your grandpa and Uncle Don will take care of you. You’ll still be able to live in the house and go to the same school. Will that be okay?” Esther nodded.

 He and Charlie had spent months arranging a long chain of custody and inheritance, well aware that groups like the Russians or Columbians were not adverse to taking out a whole family. Alan was first then Don, next Megan and Larry, then Ian, David and even Colby’s mom. All of them, even Mrs. Granger, had agreed to make sure that if the worst truly happened Esther would never get anywhere near the child services system.

 “Hey, do you have anything major at school today?” Colby asked. Esther shrugged. “Any tests? Big projects due?”

 “It’s Tuesday. We never do anything on Tuesdays.”

 “Okay. Do you think you could come to the office with Cindy today? Keep her company while stuff gets dealt with?”

 “Sure.”

 “Okay. I’m going to talk with your Dad. Why don’t you try to get some more sleep?”

 Esther nodded and opened the door to her room. Cindy had wrapped tight around her doll, her dreams obviously disturbed. Instead of getting back in her own bed Esther crawled next to Cindy and wrapped her arms around the smaller girl. Colby sighed and closed the door.

 ~

 Breakfast was a subdued affair. Colby let the girls sleep in till nearly eight, figuring they needed the rest. Cindy was picking through her Cheerios when she looked up at Colby.

 “Am I going to school today?” she asked.

 “Not today. You’re going to have kind of a boarding day hanging around the FBI.”

 “Oh,” Cindy said softly.

 Colby was sure Cindy was just craving a certain amount of normality at this stage. “I could go by your school and pick up your homework for you?”

 Cindy shrugged. “Okay.”

 “Are you two going to be okay here with Alan for a couple of hours this morning?”

 “We’ll be fine,” Esther replied for the two of them.

 “Okay. Don’s going to come back and get you two in a couple of hours and take you to the office.”

 Cindy looked at Esther. “You’re coming too?”

 “Yeah.”

 “We though you could use the company,” Colby provided.

 Cindy just shrugged and kept her eyes focused on her cereal. Esther reached over and gently took her free hand.

 ~

 Colby checked his watch as the school principal lead him down the bright hallway. Don would have the girls at the office by now. Redhill Primary had been more than willing to take Esther, even cut a deal on tuition to have her, but it was more than an hour across town outside of rush hour.

 The principal opened a door and waved a perky young teacher to the hall.

 “Yes?” the teacher asked, standing in the doorway to keep half an eye on the class.

 “Colby Granger, FBI.” Colby flashed his badge.

 The teacher suddenly looked very worried. “Yes, can I help you?”

 “Yes, actually I’m here to pick up Cindy Wires’ homework.”

 “Of course. Has something happened? She never misses school.” The teacher looked honestly concerned.

 “Unfortunately, yes. She’s currently in protective custody. She wanted to come to school, for the normality I’m sure, but the best we can offer her right now is homework.”

 “Oh, poor thing.” The teacher went to her desk and began gathering up papers. “Do you know when she’ll be able to come back?”

 “Honestly, I don’t, she may be taken out of state.”

 “Well, I hope she can come back. She a wonderful little girl.” The teacher handed Colby some handouts. “Let me get her books.”

 Colby flipped through the handouts. There were instructions for a short essay on the history of the L.A. Spanish Missions. Colby couldn’t remember writing essays in second grade, he was pretty sure they were still trying to get him to color in the lines at that point. There was a sudden tug on his jacket. Colby looked down at a wide eyed little boy.

 “Is that a real gun?” The boy asked pointing at Colby’s shoulder holster.

 “Yes it is.”

 “Can I hold it?”

 “Absolutely not. And you should never touch a gun that you find or someone tries to give you. Do you know why?” The boy shook his head. “Because you never know if a gun is loaded and you can kill someone on accident, you also never know if a gun is working or not. It might be broken and go off without you wanting it to. You also never know if a gun has been used in a crime. You could be getting your fingerprints all over a murder weapon and when we dust for prints and find yours it means you could go to jail for the rest of your life for something you didn’t do.” The little boy’s eyes went wide. “You don’t want that do you?” The boy frantically shook his head. “So don’t touch guns.” The boy nodded vigorously, then ran off. Colby looked at the principal and teacher who were giving him a bit of an evil eye. “Well, he’s never going to try to touch a gun.”

 “We try not to use scare tactics.” the principal said.

 Colby just shrugged. “In our house we just call it enlightened self interest.” He took the books from the teacher. “I’ll tell Cindy you send your best.”

 ~

 Colby watched through the two way glass of the interview room. The child psychologist was talking to Cindy about what she was going to need to do and why. Esther sat next to her. According to Don, she’d kept a death grip on Esther’s hand since they left the house and Esther had, rather uncharacteristically, been quite patient about it. Colby couldn’t help but feel that this might be the last straw that sent him to hell. No parent should shove their own kid into that kind of emotional mine field.

 Don came in to watch the proceedings as well. “Is it just me or is Esther being scarily nice to her, and well behaved?” he asked.

 “I’m a little creeped.”

 “I’m wondering where the pod is?”

 Cindy began to cry at something the psychologist said. Esther wrapped her arms around Cindy then said something very rude to the psychologist in Spanish. The psychologist’s jaw dropped. Don smiled. “Ah, there’s our girl.”

 ~

 Colby was making sure the line up was ready when Matt waved him over.

 “The cutest thing is happening in the break room.”

 Colby walked over to take a look with a little trepidation. The girls had apparently decided against homework for the time being. Instead Esther was standing there with a copy of the LA county phone book, A to G, held up to her chest and Cindy was hitting it. After a few hits Esther would reach out and turn Cindy’s wrist a little or tap her feet so she’d shift them, then Cindy would go back to hitting the phone book as hard as she could, which Colby had to figure wasn’t very hard.

 “Well,” Colby said carefully. “I guess every little girl should know how to throw a proper punch.”

 Matt chuckled. “Well, all my sisters could.”

 Colby leaned into the break room. “Sweetie, straighten her wrist more so she doesn’t hurt it.”

 Esther nodded and reached out and adjusted Cindy’s wrist.

 ~

 The small room was crowded. Cindy stood on a chair so she could see the line up better.

 “Take all the time you need,” Don said calmly. “There’s no wrong answer.”

 Cindy’s face when very still. Esther reached up and took her hand “Him.” Cindy pointed to number two, “and him.” She pointed to seven.

 Colby cheered internally. “Are you sure? You don’t have to rush.” Cindy nodded, tears beginning to shine in her eyes. “Okay. Can you tell me which numbers?”

 “Two and seven.” she said firmly, but Colby could hear the tightness in her voice.

 “Okay.” Colby helped her off the chair. “Can you two go wait in the break room?”

 Esther nodded for both of them and more or less dragged Cindy out.

 Colby looked to Don, whose face split into a grin. “I want those two weeks, Don.”

 “They’re all yours.”

 ~

 Colby watched as Don laid into the two thugs that had thought they were untouchable. “I got a witness picked your two ugly asses out of a line-up without even blinking. Now, that means we’ve got you for the Wires hit and the jury is going to take one look at all those pretty little family photos with blood splatter across them and they’re going to want to stick a needle in your arms really quick. Now give us your boss and we’ll see about turning that into life instead.”

 Colby smiled a little to himself. He understood why Don was moving upstairs at long last. Rebecca was showing and the two of them were already picking out stuff for the nursery. Throw in more grey hairs than a first time father should really have and Don was faced with the possibility of missing out on a lot of his son’s life if he stayed with Violent Crimes. Despite all that, nothing Don said was going to convince Colby that Don wasn’t going to miss this; even Becca was kinda against Don taking the desk job. That look of fear in a bad guy’s eyes when they realize they’re completely screwed and the man on the other side of the table with the cold grin is their only hope, that was a look that was easy to get hooked on.

 The door to the observation room cracked open and Charlie stepped in.

 “Hey,” Charlie whispered. “Are we going to get them?”

 “Oh yeah. Cindy nailed them in two seconds.”

 “They going to roll over?”

 “I’d put money on it.”

 Charlie grinned a grin that was rather similar to Don’s. “Good. I want to see Richardson go down so bad.”

 “This’ll get us a warrant to bring him in and even if the ratting doesn’t stick I’m sure you’ll only need to spend five minutes in his books to find massive fraud.”

 “I’m looking forward to it.”

 On the other side of the glass, Don leaned in too close to the suspects. “You don’t even have to tell us anything. We dump you out of the back of a government car, just make it look like you ratted, how long do you think you’re going to last?”

 “You can’t convince me Don isn’t going to miss this,” Charlie said with a shake of his head.

 “I’ve got a funny feeling he’s not actually going to be spending much time behind that fancy desk.”

 “You think?”

 Don waltzed out of the interrogation room. Charlie and Colby went to meet him.

 “Hey Don, they gonna roll?” Charlie asked.

 “Yeah, I’m just going to give them a minute to think. Get their stories straight.”

 “Can I take the girls home?” Charlie gestured toward the break room, where Esther seemed to be helping Cindy with her homework. Or possibly just doing it for her.

 “Yeah, get them out of here. Cindy’s grandparents should be in by seven.”

 “Good. Family will be good for her.”

 ~

 Dinner was had early. Perfect roast chicken with all the fixings. Cindy was still quiet and during dessert Esther scooped extra chocolate pudding into Cindy’s bowl from her own. There was a knock at the door as the dishes were being cleared away. Colby opened the door. A haggard-looking couple in their 60’s stood there.

 “Excuse me,” the man began, “We’re looking for Cindy Wires?”

 “Grandpa!” Cindy’s voice shrieked from the dining room. Colby stepped out of the way as Cindy ran from the other room and leapt into her grandfather’s arms, nearly knocking him to the floor. The couple both wrapped their arms around the little girl and held her for a long moment. Colby looked the couple over. It wasn’t uncommon for grandparents to be unable to take children due to age or health or finances. No one was sure what kind of situation Cindy’s grandparents were in and he and Charlie had even spoken about it the night before, if they were willing to drop a clever little girl like Cindy into the foster system if it came to that. However, for 60-plus, both her grandparents looked to be in good health. Her grandmother sported a diamond tennis bracelet and her grandfather a nice watch.

 Colby turned to his own daughter, who had followed Cindy’s sprint. “Sweetie, could you go grab Cindy’s stuff?” Esther just nodded and headed upstairs.

 They looked up and reached out a hand to shake Colby’s. “Thank you so much for looking after her.”

 “She was no trouble, really.”

 “Do you know who we contact about..?” The woman trailed off.

 Colby pulled some cards from his pocket and handed them over. “That’s victim services, child services and the agent in charge of your daughter’s case. You’ll need to call child services to get a full change of custody before you can take her out of state. Victim services will help you get everything else sorted out.”

 “Thank you, again.”

 “It was the least we could do, considering,” said Alan.

 “I know it’s not worth much now,” Charlie said, “but she was very brave, very smart, and some very bad people are going away for a long time ‘cause of it.”

 Esther had returned and held out the backpack and floppy doll. Cindy silently reached down and took them, obviously not yet wanting to be put down by her grandfather.

 “Do you have a place to stay in LA?” Alan asked.

 “We have a room at the airport Marriott for the time being.”

 “Oh, good.”

 “Well, we should be going, thank you again.”

 “Our pleasure.”

 “Are you going to say goodbye?” Cindy’s grandfather asked her.

 “Bye,” Cindy said softly.

 “Take care,” said Colby. “Remember, keep your wrist straight.”

 Cindy nodded then shyly waved bye to Esther. Esther just waved back. There were final nods all around and Cindy was carried to a rental car parked on the curb.

 Colby closed the door. Esther was staring at her feet. Colby crouched down and pulled her into a hug. “Thank you, sweetie. You were very good today. I’m very proud of you.”

 Charlie crouched down and held her as well. “You did a good job today.”

 Esther just fidgeted a bit. “Can I go read?” she asked.

 Colby kissed her on the forehead, knowing practically any other parent in the country would kill to hear their kid utter those words. “Sure, go read.”

 Esther headed upstairs, Colby looked at Alan and Charlie.

 “You know she’s going to have nightmares tonight?” Alan said, giving him a hard look.

 Colby and Charlie both nodded. “Yeah, we know.”

 ~

 Colby was only half asleep when he heard the soft cries. Esther had tried to stay up late, driving away the nightmares with exhaustion the same as her father, but it obviously didn’t work. Charlie had already woken up thrashing earlier in the night.

 Colby padded softly into Esther’s room, Charlie followed. She was awake and sitting up, crying to Marat in a dozen languages Colby didn’t understand. It didn’t matter. She looked up and held out her arms. Colby sat down on one side of the bed and Charlie the other. They both wrapped their arms around her.

 Colby took a deep breath. “We’re not going anywhere sweetie, I promise.”

 


End file.
